US GAAP arrives in an Indian finance team as somebody else's deadline
Almost nobody in India sets out to adopt US GAAP. It arrives attached to something else: a US parent that needs a reporting pack on its own calendar, a holding company incorporated in Delaware, an acquirer whose diligence list assumes a framework you do not use, or a plan to raise capital in a market that has its own rulebook. The accounting is only part of the job. The rest is working out which US requirements actually reach you, which ones stop at your parent, and which of them changed in the last eighteen months, because a great deal of them did.
- Written against the Accounting Standards Codification as amended to August 2026, including the twelve Updates the FASB issued during 2025
- Clear about what is settled and what is not: several of the Securities and Exchange Commission positions on these pages were proposals rather than rules when this was written, and we say so each time
- Written for the Indian side of the relationship, where the statutory framework stays Ind AS and the US requirement sits on top of it
What we actually do differently
We work out what actually reaches you first
A US parent's obligations are not automatically its Indian subsidiary's obligations. Internal control requirements, auditor attestation, segment disclosure and a great deal else stop at the registrant. What reaches India is usually a reporting pack, a materiality threshold and a close deadline. Establishing that boundary early prevents an Indian finance team preparing for requirements that were never going to apply to it.
We track the Updates, not just the Codification
US GAAP changes through numbered Accounting Standards Updates, each carrying its own effective date, often different for public and private companies and different again for interim periods. Twelve were issued in 2025 alone. Knowing the Codification is not the same as knowing which version of it applies to your reporting period, and the second question is the one that causes rework.
We separate proposals from rules
In 2026 the SEC proposed a substantial rewrite of filer status and of emerging growth company accommodations, and separately proposed rescinding its climate disclosure rules. Neither had been adopted when these pages were written. Content that presents a proposal as the current position is worse than no content, so we mark each one where it appears.
Four ways an Indian company ends up reporting under US GAAP
You are a subsidiary of a US parent
The most common case by a wide margin. Statutory accounts stay under Ind AS, and a separate reporting pack goes to the parent on the parent's timetable and to the parent's materiality. The work is the bridge between the two, and the difficulty is usually the calendar rather than the accounting.
Your holding company sits outside India
A structure with a Delaware or other foreign parent above an Indian operating company, common where the business raised capital from US investors. The group reports under US GAAP, the Indian entity reports under Ind AS, and the exchange control and tax consequences of the structure sit alongside the accounting ones.
You are preparing to raise capital or list in the US
This is where the accounting framework question becomes a securities law question: whether you are a foreign private issuer, which forms you file, whether you can report in IFRS as issued by the IASB or must present US GAAP, and which internal control requirements attach. A fifth guide on listing readiness is in preparation and will be published here.
You are being acquired by, or acquiring, a US business
Diligence arrives with a set of assumptions about the framework, the closing balance sheet is defined by reference to it, and the purchase price allocation afterwards is done under ASC 805. Getting the framework question settled before the sale and purchase agreement is drafted is materially cheaper than afterwards.
How an engagement is put together
1. Establish the boundary
Which entity has the obligation, to whom, under which rulebook, and at what date. This one question decides whether the engagement is a reporting exercise or a securities law project.
2. Difference analysis against your actual policies
Not a generic comparison table. A review of the accounting policies you apply now, against the US GAAP requirement, with each difference quantified or explicitly marked as unquantified.
3. Fix the effective dates
For each Update that bites, establish which version applies to the period being reported, whether early adoption is available, and whether the entity counts as a public business entity for the purpose, which is not the same question as whether it is listed.
4. Build the pack, then hand it over
The first reporting pack is built with us. The intention is that your own team runs it thereafter, on a documented process, rather than the pack becoming a permanent outsourced dependency.
5. Watch the rule changes
Both the FASB and the SEC were unusually active through 2025 and 2026. We review this material against primary sources on a schedule rather than at build time only, and reissue what has moved.
Four guides now, and a fifth on listing readiness in preparation
Guide 1 is the situation most readers are actually in. Guide 2 is the difference analysis behind it. Guides 3 and 4 are the technical topics that generate most of the adjustments. A fifth guide steps outside accounting into securities regulation, for readers with a US listing genuinely on the table rather than as a distant ambition. It is in preparation, because the Securities and Exchange Commission has two live rule changes in that area and we would rather publish it settled than quickly.
US GAAP for Indian Subsidiaries of US Parents
The reporting pack, the group close calendar, materiality set somewhere else, the audit relationship, and the reason the hardest part of this job is almost never the accounting.
Converting to US GAAP: The Differences from Ind AS and IFRS
Where the frameworks genuinely part company: inventory costing, development costs, revaluation, impairment and its reversal, goodwill, the lease model, and expected credit losses.
Revenue, Leases and Stock Compensation
ASC 606, ASC 842 and ASC 718. The first two look familiar to an Ind AS reporter and then diverge in detail. The third is where an Indian subsidiary of a US group most often finds it has been accounting for something incorrectly for years.
Business Combinations, Consolidation and Goodwill
ASC 805, ASC 810 and ASC 350: purchase price allocation, the variable interest entity model that has no direct equivalent elsewhere, goodwill impairment, and the private company alternatives that change the answer entirely.
US Listing Readiness: Reporting, Filer Status and Internal Control
Foreign private issuer status and what it is worth, the forms, emerging growth company accommodations, internal control over financial reporting, and the substantial rewrite of filer categories the SEC proposed in May 2026.
Why it is not published yet. Two Securities and Exchange Commission rule changes would rewrite parts of this guide rather than merely date them. The filer status proposal of 19 May 2026 closed to comment on 20 July and had not been adopted as at 10 September 2026; if it is adopted, two of the filer categories the guide is built around cease to exist. Separately the Commission is reconsidering foreign private issuer eligibility itself, the status the whole guide turns on, with a proposal expected around October 2026.
Send us an enquiry if you need the answer before then and a partner will reply within one business day.
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Tell us roughly where you are: a reporting pack that is late every quarter, a diligence request in a framework you do not use, a group structure that has outgrown its accounting, or a listing that has moved from ambition to plan. A partner replies within one business day.
This page is general information, not professional advice. US GAAP, the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Indian law that sits alongside them all change frequently, and several of the United States positions described on these pages were at proposal stage rather than settled when this page was written. The Income-tax Act 2025 replaced the 1961 Act with effect from 1 April 2026. Take professional advice before acting on anything on this page. We are happy to be that adviser, but we do not act on a web page, ours or anyone else's, without one.